Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's) are used for many different tasks such as air traffic monitoring, surveillance, fire protection, disaster relief, military operations, etc. In the event of an emergency (e.g. caused by loss of link, severe meteorological conditions, etc.) there is always a risk of losing the aircraft, its payload, or both.
Therefore, some aircrafts have installed an emergency system to avoid destroying the platform or its payload. However, in order to deploy such system, it is necessary to have a strong radio link between the aircraft and the ground station in order to know the aircraft circumstances and take a decision.
A common emergency system installed in many aircrafts consists on deploying a parachute at the reception from the aircraft of a signal sent by a manual pilot or a GCS (Ground Control Station). Another common way of terminating a flight is to produce an asymmetry in the aircraft configuration by detaching an aircraft part, forcing the aircraft to crash. Some other ways of flight termination involve destroying the aircraft by, for example, providing an explosive within the aircraft which is activated upon receiving a direct order sent from a GCS or a manual pilot. All these methods have the inconvenience mentioned above, of needing a strong radio link between the aircraft and the ground station. The last two methods have the inconveniences derived from loosing the aircraft and its payload.
The first method mentioned above allows saving the platform (i.e. the aircraft) and maybe its payload, but it is not automatic, since it relies on the experience of a manual operator and also on his/her ability to react on time under an emergency situation.
However, in the event of an emergency due to either bad external conditions such as weather conditions or loss of link due to craggy terrain or interferences, or either due to bad internal conditions such as mechanic and/or electronic malfunction, software failure, etc., these circumstances can inevitably derive in loosing both the aircraft and its payload.
In order to overcome the mentioned drawbacks present in the state-of-the-art systems and methods for terminating flights, a novel system and method of flight termination for air vehicles is presented.